"Ink Walking" is a performance art piece inspired by a Buddhist story in the "Sutra on the Stages of Yoga Practice" where a king tasks a death-row inmate with carrying a bowl filled to the brim with oil from the north gate to the south gate without spilling a single drop to determine his fate, and by the scene in Andrei Tarkovsky's film "Nostalghia" where the male protagonist lights a candle and crosses a drained thermal pool.
Performance art typically has its own internally defined rules; how to act, when to begin and end all point to its aesthetic significance. The artist replaces the bowl of oil in the scripture with a bowl of ink, holding the bowl and walking back and forth on a white cloth. Whenever the ink in the bowl spills, decreases, or lowers, clear water is added to replenish it, and then the walking continues until the entire bowl becomes clear water, at which point the performance ends. The ink marks and footprints on the white cloth progress from deep black to pale, eventually becoming clear water with no trace. Here, the artist uses a concrete process in a symbolic way to point out the essence and key to both spiritual practice and ink wash painting: the core of cultivation is not external phenomena and final results, but constantly focusing on maintaining pure awareness, allowing the mind to return to its originally free state.
In this work, the "bowl" is the mind, and holding the bowl is practicing holding the mind, first training the mind's concentration, and then using an awakened mind. "Ink" can symbolize the three poisons and negative karmic tendencies that pollute the original mind. Continuously adding water to the bowl with "water and water vessel" symbolizes the aspiration for purification and continuous practice. The "ground cloth" is the path to the other shore; it is also a Bodhimaṇḍa (awakening place), while the scattered ink marks and footprints on the cloth symbolize accumulated negative karma from the past. "Holding the bowl and walking" can be considered a form of walking meditation. The performer sets their own rules: to walk back and forth on a white cloth holding a bowl full of ink, replenishing with water whenever the ink spills and lowers, and the end time of this performance is set at the moment the liquid in the bowl becomes clear water.
《墨行》是一件行為藝術，它啟發自《修行道地經》佛說一國王要求死囚持一满缽油，自北門行至南門，不得溢出一滴油定其生死的故事 ，以及安德列塔可夫斯基的電影《鄉愁》男主角點燃蠟燭橫渡乾涸溫泉池的那一幕。
行為藝術通常有其內在邏輯自定的規則，怎麼行為，何時開始與結束都指向其美學意義。藝術家將經文滿缽的油改為墨汁，擎缽往復步行於一條白布之上，缽內的墨汁每有溢出減少下降，就兌入清水補滿，然後繼續行走，一直到整碗缽成為清水，行為結束。這塊白布上的墨跡、足跡由深黑至淺淡，終於成為沒有痕跡的清水。在這裡，藝術家以具體的歷程但象徵的方式，點出修行與水墨藝術的本質與要義，即鍛鍊的核心並不是外在的現象與最後的結果，而是時時專注地維持清淨的覺知，讓心回到他本來自在的樣子。
在這件作品裡，「缽」即是心，持缽就是修習持心，先是練心的專注，然後是用上覺醒的心。
「墨」，可以象徵污染本心的三毒、惡習氣。用「水與水瓶」不斷給缽注水，象徵淨化的心願與持續的操行。「地布」是到彼岸的道，它同時也是一個道場，而布上斑斑點點的墨跡與足印，則象徵過去積澱的惡業。「持缽行」算是一種行禪吧。持缽人自訂規矩，要在一條白布上持一滿缽的墨來回行走，缽中墨只要溢出降低，就兌水注滿，而這個行為的結束時間，就定在缽中液體成為淨水的那一刻。
Performance art typically has its own internally defined rules; how to act, when to begin and end all point to its aesthetic significance. The artist replaces the bowl of oil in the scripture with a bowl of ink, holding the bowl and walking back and forth on a white cloth. Whenever the ink in the bowl spills, decreases, or lowers, clear water is added to replenish it, and then the walking continues until the entire bowl becomes clear water, at which point the performance ends. The ink marks and footprints on the white cloth progress from deep black to pale, eventually becoming clear water with no trace. Here, the artist uses a concrete process in a symbolic way to point out the essence and key to both spiritual practice and ink wash painting: the core of cultivation is not external phenomena and final results, but constantly focusing on maintaining pure awareness, allowing the mind to return to its originally free state.
In this work, the "bowl" is the mind, and holding the bowl is practicing holding the mind, first training the mind's concentration, and then using an awakened mind. "Ink" can symbolize the three poisons and negative karmic tendencies that pollute the original mind. Continuously adding water to the bowl with "water and water vessel" symbolizes the aspiration for purification and continuous practice. The "ground cloth" is the path to the other shore; it is also a Bodhimaṇḍa (awakening place), while the scattered ink marks and footprints on the cloth symbolize accumulated negative karma from the past. "Holding the bowl and walking" can be considered a form of walking meditation. The performer sets their own rules: to walk back and forth on a white cloth holding a bowl full of ink, replenishing with water whenever the ink spills and lowers, and the end time of this performance is set at the moment the liquid in the bowl becomes clear water.
《墨行》是一件行為藝術，它啟發自《修行道地經》佛說一國王要求死囚持一满缽油，自北門行至南門，不得溢出一滴油定其生死的故事 ，以及安德列塔可夫斯基的電影《鄉愁》男主角點燃蠟燭橫渡乾涸溫泉池的那一幕。
行為藝術通常有其內在邏輯自定的規則，怎麼行為，何時開始與結束都指向其美學意義。藝術家將經文滿缽的油改為墨汁，擎缽往復步行於一條白布之上，缽內的墨汁每有溢出減少下降，就兌入清水補滿，然後繼續行走，一直到整碗缽成為清水，行為結束。這塊白布上的墨跡、足跡由深黑至淺淡，終於成為沒有痕跡的清水。在這裡，藝術家以具體的歷程但象徵的方式，點出修行與水墨藝術的本質與要義，即鍛鍊的核心並不是外在的現象與最後的結果，而是時時專注地維持清淨的覺知，讓心回到他本來自在的樣子。
在這件作品裡，「缽」即是心，持缽就是修習持心，先是練心的專注，然後是用上覺醒的心。
「墨」，可以象徵污染本心的三毒、惡習氣。用「水與水瓶」不斷給缽注水，象徵淨化的心願與持續的操行。「地布」是到彼岸的道，它同時也是一個道場，而布上斑斑點點的墨跡與足印，則象徵過去積澱的惡業。「持缽行」算是一種行禪吧。持缽人自訂規矩，要在一條白布上持一滿缽的墨來回行走，缽中墨只要溢出降低，就兌水注滿，而這個行為的結束時間，就定在缽中液體成為淨水的那一刻。
